Wire drawing devices of the general type disclosed herein have been known for many years. They comprise a plurality of capstans over which the wire being drawn passes. Normally, the wire loops at least once around each capstan and the dies are located between such capstans. Since a plurality of strands is drawn at the same time, the capstans are relatively long in the axial direction and often 7 or 8 such strands are wrapped around each one. There is a group of dies between capstans, each group containing a plurality of dies corresponding to the number of strands being drawn.
As is frequently the case, one or more strands breaks during the drawing operation. When a strand breaks, the operator must take the end of the strand and pass it through the opening of the corresponding die. He then must wind it around the next capstan and rotate the capstan by causing the machine to move slightly. He then must perform the same steps on the next die and capstan, and so on until he has completely rethreaded the broken strand. Then, the machine may be restarted and normal operation resumed.
If the broken strand happens to be other than the outermost one, the operator must work with his arms substantially extended. This creates a great strain on him and makes the job quite awkward. This is especially true when the wires are very fine and threading is difficult. Moreover, such fine wires might easily be broken by the movement of the operator's arms in the course of trying to thread a previously broken strand through the various dies and capstans.